


The White Ribbon

by necromancy_enthusiast



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Coming Out, Gen, Genderqueer Character, Gift Giving, Leave pre-timeskip Caspar alone he's trans and has to cut his own hair, Nagamas, Nagamas 2019, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Linhardt von Hevring, Or maybe Linhardt cuts it for him, Trans Caspar von Bergliez, Trans Male Character, maybe they cut each other's hair... that would explain a lot, nonbinary author, trans author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22120357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/necromancy_enthusiast/pseuds/necromancy_enthusiast
Summary: Linhardt's worn the same white ribbon in his hair for a long time now. It's not simply that he likes it or thinks it makes him look good, it carries a special importance to him.
Relationships: Caspar von Bergliez & Linhardt von Hevring
Comments: 10
Kudos: 43
Collections: Nagamas Gifts





	The White Ribbon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [donniedont](https://archiveofourown.org/users/donniedont/gifts).



> I've been wanting to write something along these lines since before the game even came out, all I really needed was that sweet, sweet external motivation.
> 
> Thanks to emptyolivejar for beta reading.

Linhardt met his best friend when he was six years old. His father was to have a meeting with the Minister of Military Affairs, Count Bergliez. He didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary, after all his parents had quite a few visitors, but then he heard that the Count was going to bring his children with him.

He had a son and a daughter, and apparently the daughter was Linhardt’s age, but from the start Linhardt had a feeling that their fathers weren’t introducing them simply for their children to be friends.

“I expect you to be polite to her, Linhardt,” his father told him several hours before Count Bergliez and his children were expected to arrive. “The former Count Bergliez retired last year and his son inherited his position. He and I… Have a complicated relationship, but perhaps it can be smoothed over if you and she get along.”

Linhardt nodded dutifully, waiting for his father to reveal his full intentions.

“She’s a second child, so she has no inheritance in her future. You of course are the heir of the Hevring estate and the Ministry of the Interior, and perhaps if we play our cards right, we can secure a favorable relationship with the Bergliez household. Who knows, maybe someday you could even marry her and tie our families together.”

Ah, there it was. Always with the ulterior motives, his father. But Linhardt knew when to keep his head down, so he simply nodded.

“Yes father.”

…...

Sometime later, Linhardt and his mother waited in the Great Hall while his father was greeting their guests outside.

“Remember dear, be on your best behavior,” his mother said.

“Yes mother.”

She smiled at him. “I hope you and Count Bergliez’s daughter can be good friends. Sometimes I worry that you’re lonely.”

Linhardt didn’t really feel lonely, at least not most of the time. He had his books, and besides, he found most children his age too troublesome to deal with on a regular basis. But he decided not to share this with his mother for fear that it would worry her even more.

Right at that moment, the doors swung open, and in came Linhardt’s father along with Count Bergliez and his children. Linhardt had met the new Count Bergliez before and hadn’t particularly liked him. He had a combative nature and seemed to look for a fight in even the most innocuous statements.

His son, the heir of the Bergliez estate, gave Linhardt a quick glance and nothing more, seeming as though he almost immediately forgot Linhardt was there. Linhardt would’ve guessed he was about five years older than himself, maybe more, it was hard to tell given his short stature.

Finally came the daughter. Her more laid back countenance made itself evident in her movements and posture, which were much less stiff than that of her father and brother, as well as her overall appearance. She had an unkempt look about her, her dress was somewhat muddied on the skirt and her light blue hair was already coming out of her ponytail, which was adorned with a long white ribbon. Upon seeing Linhardt, her eyes lit up.

“Count and Countess Hevring,” Count Bergliez began. He motioned towards his son and daughter. “These are my children.” He looked over at his daughter for a moment. “I must… Apologize for my daughter’s state of dishevelment, when we stopped for a break she tripped while she was running and fell into a mud puddle.”

“She’s a child, these things happen,” Countess Hevring said. She smiled at the children.

“Hello dears, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said.

“Likewise,” Minister von Bergliez’s son said.

“Hi!” his daughter said.

“You’ve met my son, of course,” Count Hevring said.

Count Bergliez’s daughter broke rank and made her way over to Linhardt. She looked him over for a moment before her smile grew.

“Hi! You’re Linhardt, right?” she asked.

“Yes?” he said.

“Neat! You wanna be friends?” Her father stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. It wasn’t a particularly warm or friendly gesture.

“Dear,” he said somewhat tersely. “Remember what I told you before we got here? There’s a certain way you have to act in situations like this,” he chided. She frowned.

“But what’s the point of beating around the bush? It makes everything so long and boring, why not just get straight to the point?” she asked. Her father stared at her with a hint of irritation before turning to Linhardt’s father.

“Please forgive my daughter, she is young and… Struggles with etiquette sometimes,” he said.

“Oh, there’s nothing to worry about. She’s just excited, and I hope she and Linhardt can get along well,” Linhardt’s mother said.

“Linhardt is the same age and he has no such problems,” His father replied.

Count Bergliez looked over at him. “Oh? He seems rather undisciplined to me,” he said. “You practically let him do as he pleases whenever he pleases.”

“I do no such thing,” Linhardt’s father said. “He studied nearly every day, and has displayed a talent in magic.”

“Ah yes, magic. Extremely useful in close quarters combat.”

Linhardt’s father looked as though he wanted to say something else, but his wife rested a hand on his shoulder, and he sighed in resignation.

“It’s best not to argue with you over such small matters, I’ve learned.”

“Wise of you,” Count Bergliez said. “Now then, shall we go to your meeting room to discuss what I mentioned in my letter?”

“Yes, very well,” Linhardt’s father said. “Come with me.”

“My son will be accompanying us. He needs to learn about these things after all, since he’ll be inheriting my position. Shouldn’t yours attend our meeting as well?”

Revulsion overtook Linhardt at the idea of sitting through a boring meeting where boring adults talked about boring things.

“He’s six years old,” His father said. “Even if he listened, I doubt he’d retain or even understand most of it.”

Linhardt very quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hrm, well he’s not my son. You do as you please,” Count Bergliez said. Linhardt’s father made his way down the hall, but before Count Bergliez followed him, he turned to his children.

“I want you both to be on your best behavior. Son, you’d better listen, this isn’t just for your future, it’s for the future of the Empire.”

“Yes, father,” his son said.

“And you,” Count Bergliez said as he turned to his daughter. “Just… Stay out of trouble  _ for once _ .”

His daughter nodded, but Linhardt had the feeling it was more of a token gesture than anything.

“Very well. Come with me, son,” Count Bergliez said. Soon enough, they were gone, and the two younger children were left only with Linhardt's mother.

“Sooooo,” The girl said. “What kinda games do you wanna play?”

Linhardt shrugged.

“Sweetie, she wants to play with you, isn’t there anything you’d like to do?” his mother said.

“Well…" he thought for a moment. In the end nothing came to mind, but he wasn't especially invested in coming up with something anyway. "Why don’t you pick?” he finally said.

“Hmmmm,” the young girl intoned. “Oh, I know! Let’s play tag!”

“Eeeehhh... That’s a lot of running,” Linhardt said.

“Yeah, so? It’s fun.”

“Isn’t it better when you have more than two people to play anyway?” Linhardt asked. Her eyes widened as though she hadn’t really considered that.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said. “Oooh, I know, how about hide and seek? Oh, oh, or we could play pretend!”

“What kind of pretend?”

“Let’s sword fight!”

“I don’t think I want to do that,” he said. “I don’t like fighting, or blood.”

“Come on, it won’t be real blood.”

“I don’t like pretend blood either.”

"Sweetie, don't you at least want to give it a try?" His mother said.

“Awww, come on, it’ll be fun!” the girl said.

Linhardt sighed. “Alright… But when we’re done, I get to pick what we do next.”

“Sure, that sounds fair!”

Linhardt caught a glimpse of his mother’s smile as the two made their way out of the room.

……

Despite their differences, the two fell into an easy friendship. Even though they argued like their fathers at times, it was rarely serious, or at least they always made up in the end. Before long, Linhardt couldn’t imagine life without her. True, sometimes she got on his nerves, but he enjoyed her company most of the time.

Eventually, it became relatively common for the two to accompany their fathers when they went to meet one another, in fact they both always insisted and were usually granted their requests. Linhardt’s father seemed ambivalent about it, glad that their relationship was strengthening the ties between their respective houses, but also worried that she might rub off on Linhardt. She had a habit of looking for trouble and a knack for finding it, Linhardt often getting pulled in due to their near inseparability. More than once he’d been scolded by his father to ‘set a good example for her’ and to ‘be a leader, not a follower’’, but his mother would always come to their defense, reminding him of all the good their friendship had done for their son, plus Linhardt didn’t really care what his father thought. Besides, given how hard-headed his friend was, he doubted he could get her to change her ways even if he wanted to.

Overtime, it became evident that she had a habit of defying expectations. Despite being notably smaller than Linhardt, she was far stronger and had much more stamina, probably due in no small part to the near daily training that her father had been putting her and her brother through since before Linhardt had even met her. Linhardt would sit around reading a book while she trained (except for that one time Count Bergliez made him join in, but Linhardt didn’t like to think about that), trying her hardest to keep up with her brother, always wanting to show him up or outdo him, but every time she failed. He was five years her senior after all, and he’d had more time to hone his abilities. But even if she got discouraged, she never let it stop her, no matter how many times she failed.

"Why even bother," Linhardt asked one day after a particularly embarrassing defeat. "You're never going to beat him, at least not as you are now."

"You don't know that!" She said.

"Your brother may not be big for kids his age, but he's still bigger than you. It's just basic logic. You could be spending your time doing something better, at least until you’re about the same size."

"That’ll take  _ years _ , I'm not gonna sit around and wait for that! I can beat him on my own, I just gotta keep training!" She insisted. Linhardt sighed. Once she got into a mood like this, there was no changing her mind (not that changing her mind was easy to begin with). 

"Fine, if you want to keep wasting your time fighting a battle you can't win, be my guest. I'm just trying to help you." She crossed her arms and pouted.

"Sure, if I had an attitude like yours I'd never win! But if I keep going, it'll happen sooner or later! Just you wait!"

….. 

One time when they were playing together in Linhardt’s room, she started looking through the drawers where the maids stored his clothes.

“You know, people usually ask before they go rummaging through other people’s things,” Linhardt said.

“Sure, but we’re friends, you don’t mind, right?”

“I guess not,” he said.

“Gee, I’ve never seen you wear most of this,” she said.

Linhardt shrugged. “I don’t like a lot of it.”

“In that case…” she said as she pulled several articles of clothing from the drawers. “I’m gonna try some of this stuff on.”

Linhardt didn’t really care either way, so he didn’t raise an objection. She went to the next room over to change, and after a few moments, returned in a dress shirt and pants.

“Hmmm,” she said as she looked herself over. “What do you think?”

“They’re too big on you.”

She huffed a bit indignantly. “Well yeah, of course they do. But ignore that for a minute, do I look good?”

You look fine to me.”

“Just ‘fine’? Not good or bad?”

“Well… I don’t know? Good I guess?”

She sighed. “Do you always have to be so detached about everything?”

Once again, he shrugged.

“Fine, I’m gonna go try something else on,” she said as she headed towards the door.

“What, you don’t like skirts?”

“I mean… I don’t  _ hate  _ them, and it’s not like my parents  _ always  _ make me wear them just… I dunno,” she replied.

“Wish my parents would let me wear skirts,” Linhardt said. “They seem comfortable.”

“Eeehhhh, they can be a pain sometimes. You have to worry about them getting in the way if they’re too long when you’re running, and you sure can’t fight in ‘em… Or you really shouldn’t anyway.”

“Doesn’t sound like a problem to me.”

“Yeah, because you never want to run or fight anyway,” she said before pausing in consideration for a moment. “You could try some of my stuff on when you came over... but it wouldn’t fit. Sorry.”

Linhardt waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine,” he said. But deep down, he was a little disappointed. 

“How come only girls wear skirts anyway?” she asked. That wasn’t really something he’d considered before. In the end, neither of them could come up with a reason that made sense.

When they asked Linhardt’s parents at dinner, his father gave them an odd look, and his mother laughed good-naturedly. Despite acting like they knew everything on the topic, they didn’t have a good answer, either. It was still rattling around in the back of Linhardt's mind when he went to bed that night.

…...

At one point, the two shared a keen interest in fairy tales, and spent hours paging through the storybooks in the extensive Hevring mansion library. Before long, she’d found her favorite,  _ Caspar the Brave.  _ Linhardt wasn’t especially fond of it, but from the moment she first finished the story, she was in love. She'd make her mother read it to her over and over again, and when she wasn't doing that, she'd make Linhardt read it with her over and over again. Eventually she knew it word for word, and Linhardt was fairly certain he did too, regardless of whether or not he wanted to. Eventually, more and more of their games of pretend revolved around reenacting their favorite fairy tales, and when she got to pick, she almost always chose  _ Caspar the Brave.  _

"Caspar is so amazing, he always does what's right and helps people," she said one day long after Linhardt had stopped counting how many times he'd had to read the story with her. “I want to be like him when I grow up.” 

She always took an interest in morality tales like that, great heroes who persevered through strength, willpower, and their unending desire to do good, defend the innocent, and vanquish evil. Linhardt felt they were too simplistic in their portrayal of morality, but she would always defend them when he brought this up.

“Bad people do bad things, it’s as simple as that! They need to be stopped!” she said once.

“But  _ why  _ do they do bad things?” Linhardt asked.

“Because they’re evil, duh.”

“But why would someone be evil?”

“Because they like doing bad things. Come on Linhardt, it isn’t that hard.”

“So they’re evil because they do bad things, and they do bad things because they’re evil. That reasoning seems pretty circular to me.”

“So?”

“What if someone who was good did something bad, or someone that was bad did something good?”

“No way, that would never happen!”

“Well, what if they were forced to?”

She paused as though she’d never really thought of that.

“I... I don’t know?” she finally said.

“See, it’s not that simple.”

She crossed her arms and pouted, not wanting to admit defeat, but also incapable of coming up with anything to counter him with. Given her short attention span and how easily distracted she was, she wasn’t annoyed for too long, however. Soon enough they were the same as always again.

…...

One day, when they were nine, Linhardt and his father came to visit at the Bergliez manor as usual. While their fathers were chatting about something boring (as per usual, adults always talked about the most boring things possible. They must enjoy it somehow, Linhardt thought) she grabbed Linhardt’s hand, a big smile on her face.

"Come with me!" She said, and took off before he even got a chance to turn her down. She took him to the center of the manor's garden, which was abloom with all sorts of flowers from across the empire in a myriad of colors. Linhardt had once spent the better part of a day cataloging the flowers (much to his friend's chagrin) but by the end had grown bored and decided it was too big a task to perform mostly by himself (with the occasional 'help' from his friend, who mostly just whined about how much she wanted to do something else).

They sat down next to one another at the large fountain in the center of the garden, and she looked about ready to burst.

"What is it?" Linhardt asked. "You always get too excited, but I haven't seen you  _ this  _ excited since… Well, ever I think."

She looked around to make sure no one else was nearby before turning back around and speaking. "I'm a boy!" He said. A short pause.

"You are?" Linhardt asked.

"Yup! Decided a week ago, but I've been thinking about it for a long time now. You’re the first person I wanted to tell."

"Huh," Linhardt remarked. "What's it like?" His friend's expression morphed from excitement to confusion. Linhardt could've sworn he cycled through more emotions in one day than Linhardt did in a week.

"Being a boy?" He asked. Linhardt shrugged.

"I dunno, just… Knowing what you are."

"What do you mean?"

Linhardt shrugged, not having really thought out what he was going to say since it was a statement made on an impulse more than anything.

"You know you're a boy?" Linhardt asked.

"Yeah?"

"You're sure?

"Yeah."

"Huh. I didn't think anyone felt strongly about it one way or the other."

"Well of course people do! Do you not feel that way?" Linhardt shook his head. "Oh."

"I just, I don't know, I never really thought about it much. Didn't think most people did. I thought they just kinda… Did whatever."

His friend paused in consideration. "Hmmmm… Nope, I don't think so. At least not for me."

"How do you know?" Linhardt asked. 

His friend thought for a moment before simply shrugging his shoulders. "I just know."

"Oh."

"If you're not sure… Do you think maybe you're a girl?"

Linhardt considered that for a moment. "No, I don't think so. Or at least not entirely? Not just that?"

"What about a boy?" 

Linhardt considered this for a moment too before shaking his head. "No, at least not… Really, I guess."

"Hmmm," his friend intoned, scratching his head. After a moment, he seemed to arrive to a conclusion. "Well why do you have to be either?"

Linhardt stared at him for a long moment. "You think people can just do that?"

“Sure, why not?” He said. Linhardt thought for a long moment before speaking.

“Maybe you’re right,” he said.

“See! Just think about it some more and you’ll know soon enough.”

“I don’t know,” he said. That same confused expression formed on his friend’s face. “Do I have to know for sure?”

“I mean… Well… Don’t you want to?”

He shrugged.

“I guess not then?” he sighed. “I guess that sounds exactly like you anyway.”

“So, what about your name? It’s a girl’s name,” Linhardt said, deciding he’d put the whole thing about why it was considered a girl’s name anyway on the backburner for now. “Do you want to be called something else?”

His friend smiled again. “Yeah! I know exactly what it’ll be!” he smiled, puffed his chest out, and crossed his arms. “Caspar. Caspar von Bergliez. That has a nice ring to it, doncha think?”

“Well… I can’t say I’m surprised,” Linhardt said.

Caspar scowled at him. “Whaddya mean by that?”

“How many times have you made me read  _ Caspar the Brave  _ with you?”

“So? What difference does it make? I want to be like him, so I’m using his name. There’s nothing wrong with that. He’s not real, so it’s not like I’m stealing or anything.”

Linhardt chuckled quietly.

“What’s so funny?” Caspar asked.

“Oh, nothing Caspar,” Linhardt said. It felt a bit odd, calling him that, but Linhardt would get used to it.

“Oh, right!” Caspar said. He untied the same white ribbon he’d been wearing when they first met before handing it to Linhardt. “Here, you can have this!”

“But that’s your favorite hair ribbon,” Linhardt said.

“Yeah, but I won’t be needing it anymore. I’m gonna tell my family I’m a boy, and then I’ll get my hair cut short! But you’re gonna keep your hair long, right?”

Linhardt shrugged. “Probably?”

“See, there you go. You’ll get more use out of it than me, and I don’t want to just throw it away. So take care of it for me, alright?”

Linhardt took the ribbon from Caspar. “If that’s what you really want,” he said before tying it around the hairband that held his ponytail in place.

“Thanks, Linhardt!” Caspar said, hugging him. Linhardt paused for a moment before hugging him back.

“Just don’t tell anyone I did you a favor,” he said, a playful smile tugging at his lips.

……

“Linhardt, you’re always wearing that ribbon,” Ferdinand said one day as they were both studying in the library for an upcoming exam.

“Yes, very observant of you,” Linhardt replied.

“I never see you wear any other hair accessories,” Ferdinand continued. “Is there a reason?”

Linhardt shrugged. “I don’t need anything else.”

“Why? Does it bear some kind of significance?”

Linhardt brought his hand up to twirl one of the ends of the ribbon around his index finger. “It was a gift from a friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> Linhardt still wears the ribbon post-timeskip because I say so, forget canon. Anyway, thanks for reading, I'm on tumblr at necromancy-enthusiast and twitter @NecromancyFan.


End file.
